


Inked in Hearts

by Caffinated_Story



Series: Spokes and Ink [1]
Category: Hetalia: Axis Powers
Genre: Alternate Universe - Human, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2013-07-10
Updated: 2013-07-10
Packaged: 2017-12-18 08:38:13
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 3
Words: 4,061
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/877827
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Caffinated_Story/pseuds/Caffinated_Story
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Maarten has a few regrets in his life; but regardless of his mistakes he makes the best of every day. <br/>Being a tattoo artist and a single father doesn't always mix that well - but things get even more wild when a particular tattoo patron seems to take a interest in him</p>
            </blockquote>





	1. Rough Sketch

Everyone has that one incident in life they immediately regret afterwards.  
That terrible thing you did when you were young, drunk or simply just not thinking things through.  
Maarten had been all of the above.

Yet; what had started off as something he swore he’d regret turned into something that he actually didn’t mind - even began to love.  
It was strange really; he’d gotten tattoos and piercings while under the influence as a teen – and he had only occasionally regretted them.  
A child on the other hand? Even more permanent than a tattoo in many ways and much more a responsibility than some ink on your skin.

Regardless of it all; Maarten did what he could.

There was suddenly a lot to take into account about his entire way of life.  
No more beer bottles on the floor.

No more tattoo needles and tools out on the tables.

No more staying out late with his friends.  
No more loud parties in his flat.

His whole life was turned around and twisted till he could barely recognise it.  
From cigarettes, beer and freedom; to a smoke free house, sensible work hours and a duty to look after someone else apart from himself.

25 and the father of a five year old girl.  
Maarten liked to imagine that his life seemed normal if you only looked at the simple facts.

It was when the details were added that things got complicated.  
Dominiek’s mother wasn’t really prepared or able to care for their daughter (and Maarted really couldn’t blame her. The poor woman had to hold down three jobs to simply tide herself over – a child only complicated things) nor did they really like each other enough in that way to stick together. All in all; it was better to live apart.

Thus he lived his life like a single father.  
That in it self wasn’t too difficult either; he was (surprisingly) fully capable of ensuring his little offspring was well fed, washed, dressed and cared for.  
All in all it had only required some minimal cleaning up of his flat and shop to make it child-friendly.

His workplace was right below his flat; so he didn’t have to compromise much in terms of babysitting or working from home.

 

However; his job and his general appearance sometimes made things difficult.  
While he made good money, Tattooing wasn’t exactly seen as a stable job to support a child on.  
And with a rather large collection of tattoos and piercings himself; Maarten did not look the part of a loving and doting father (least not in societies eyes).  
He was well aware of this; and made a point to treat her like the princess she was.

Dominiek knew nothing else and thought nothing of her father’s many tattoos. After all; she had designed some of them herself!  
A small crumpled up paper note with the words “ Daddy. I love you” in various upper and lower-case letters, had greeted him one evening when he went to bed. He knew she’d been learning to write at nursery; but the ‘complexity’ of the note threw him off.

So he had it immortalised on his body. Left arm. The one closes to his heart; naturally.  
It was Maarten’s way of showing he cared.  
And in one way; it became Dominiek’s way of expression emotion too.

If her father could draw all over people and himself, why couldn’t she?  
The day she discovered permanent markers was the day Maarten gave up ever trying to keep any of his walls clean.  
But the day he discovered she had no fear of strangers was the day he concluded he would always cave to her will in the end.

His most recent customer; a man who’s name he was pretty sure was Fernando, was chatting away to his daughter - while Maarten himself worked on a pin-up tattoo on the man’s arm. Not so tasteful tattoo all things considered; but Maarten really couldn’t judge. Besides, money was money.

Dominiek was babbling about everything and nothing. Shoving drawings she’d made into his face and telling him how much she loved making art.  
Fernando – Maarten concluded – had the patience of a saint. Because for each drawing she showed him; he found something in it to compliment (which wasn’t hard. Because his daughter was a god damn prodigy at this). None the less; it took some patience to endure a solid hour of a five year old’s constant chatter about the colour pink and her amazing new leather jacket.

“Niekje…” Maarten looked up from Fernando’s arm and stared at his daughter, who was currently drawing flowers all over his customers leg.  
“Yes?” she replied, still drawing happily.  
“Can you please do daddy a favour and go upstairs and fetch the first aid kit?”

Dominiek looked a bit upset at having to stop her grand master-work on the tanned man’s lower leg.  
“It’s okay, you can continue those flowers when you get back,” Fernando reassured her with a wink.  
“Promise?” Dominiek narrowed her eyes, she was well aware that sometimes her artworks wandered out the door before she was finished with them; and it was very upsetting.  
“Promise,” he replied and held his pinky out.  
A pinky promise later and a few skips out the room, the tattoo shop once more only held two men.

“I’ll give you some stuff to remove the marker pen,” Maarten sighed  
“Nah, don’t worry, they fade eventually. Besides, it’s cute,” he laughed and pointed to the text on Maarten’s arm.  
“If you get to keep that I think it’s only right I can keep her non-permanent artwork on me. Two for the price of one you know,” he grinned  
“I should be charging extra then shouldn’t I?” Maarten smirked in reply; enjoying the slight look of terror on his customer that appeared for a brief moment.

“I’d rather you didn’t…”  
“Keep entertaining her like that and I might give you a discount next time, how about that?”  
Maarten hadn’t seen someone smile that brightly at him in years (unless you counted his daughter. But she was special and no one would ever get on her level of anything)  
“I might just take you up on that offer,” Fernando grinned, his expression going from smug to soft when he noticed Dominiek had returned.

“Tada!” she announced and held up the tiny first aid kit box, smiling triumphantly.  
“Well done Niekje,” Maarten praised and patted his leg, chuckling as she almost waddled over to him.  
“Want to help clean this guy up?”  
She nodded eagerly and opened up the little box.  
Much to Fernando’s surprise the little toy first aid kit did contain proper tools for cleaning and sterilising tattoos.

“She’s done this before, right?”

“More times than you,” Marten reassured with a smirk and lifted his daughter up to his lap.

Fernando said nothing and instead bit his tongue; waiting for the ointment to sting like a bitch like it always did.  
Halfway though, she got bored, and Maarten took over.

“I’ll give her credit for being more gentle than you,” Fernando hissed between clenched teeth.  
“Stop your whining. This is nothing compared to the pain of being tattooed,” Maarten retorted as he applied the rest of the protective ointment and bandage. “You’re just complaining to complain,”

“Am not,” he huffed  
“Are too!” a little voice from somewhere else in the shop sounded.  
“See, she agrees with me,” Maarten smiled smugly.  
“Not fair. I can’t argue with a lady!” Fernando frowned and rubbed the bandage carefully.  
“Precisely,” Maarten nodded.

“I’m always right!” Dominiek giggled and jumped up and down, begging to be lifted up – a notion Maarten couldn’t dare to resist doing.  
He kissed her cheek and hugged her tightly before shifting her to his shoulder; the young girl giggling and waving eagerly now that she was finally taller than the nice tanned man.

“Thanks for the tattoo,” Fernando shook Maarten’s hand and handed him his payment, but before he put his wallet back he pulled out a few coins and handed them to the little girl on her father’s shoulder  
“And here’s for the little tattoo artist in the making,” he grinned “Buy yourself something your daddy won’t let you have,”  
“CANDY!” Dominiek immediately shouted and smiled as brightly as she could; and the death glare he got from Maarten did not go unnoticed, Fernando simply choose to ignore it.

“See you later man,” he waved and high-tailed it out of the shop before one very angry Dutchman decided to come after him.


	2. Sketch

He’s nervous as he starts to approach the tattoo parlour.  
As usual he makes up for his sweaty palms and increased heartbeat by chatting even more to Sadik. The man’s nerves must be wearing thin by now but Fernando doesn’t care.  
“No honestly, he’s a great artist… he’s just as grumpy as a woman on her period,”  
Sadik raised and eyebrow before slapping him hard across the back of his head.  
“That comment right there…is why you’re still single,”

Rubbing his now rather sore head, Fernando glared at his friend.  
“You’re single as well, you ass,”  
“But I have a date,” Sadik smirked “so shut your trap and keep on walking,”  
“Just for that I am going to ensure your tattoo is extra painful,”  
“You can try,” Sadik laughs and continues walking.

The tattoo parlous is empty when they enter; but the little bell above the door ringing softly when the door opens and closes at least makes someone stir.

Sadik was greeted by the surprising sight of a small blonde girl with paint all over her clothes and face.

“Hello!” she greeted cheerfully.  
“Hey there little tattoo artist in the making, where’s your dad?” Fernando was down at her eye-level in less than a second of spotting her.  
“Daddy’s upstairs making me lunch,” she giggled and tried to brush off some paint on her dress – resulting in even more colourful smears all over her clothes.

“Will he be long?”  
“Nope!” she shook her head and pointed to a pair of chairs “you can sit there and wait,”

“Daddy’s little helper are you?” Sadik laughed as he was finally over his shock of finding a tiny girl dressed in pink in a tattoo parlour.

“I am,” she smiled and held her arms up “I’ve been practising!”  
“With paint?” Sadik chuckled  
“Artist in the making, no doubt,” Fernando laughed and picked the little girl up, not caring if his t-shirt got paint all over it.

“And the resident troublemaker and reason I will once more have to scrub paint off my floor,” Maarten added as he appeared in the doorway holding a plastic plate with two slices of bread covered din colourful sprinkles. “Dominiek, go wash your hands,” he commanded.

Fernando laughed as he out the pouting girl down and watched her disappeared behind her fathers legs and up the stairs.

“Cute kid,” Sadik greeted and held his hand out for Maarten to shake “My friend here tell me you’re a good tattoo artist,”  
“Nice of him,” Maarten put the plate down before he shook the Turks hand “Have a seat…”

“So…” Maarten looked at the two guy sitting opposite him “What can I do for you?”

“I want a tattoo of a turkey!” Sadik grinned and held up a picture he had produced from his pockets.

Maarten started. A turkey. A fucking turkey.  
This man had a worse taste in tattoo’s than his latino friend.

“What?” he gaped and looked at Sadik and then to Fernando, before back to Sadik and his picture of a turkey.  
“You’ve got to be fucking joking me,”

“Do you really think I’d let him have the biggest bird?” Sadik gestured to Fernando and laughed heartedly, to witch Maarten could only respond with blank looks and a question on his lips.  
“What?”

“Want to see my big cock!?” Fernando laughed and stood up  
“No thank you I don’t think that will be necess—-”

Maarten let a breath of relief escape him when the man only lifted his t-shirt to show a tattoo of a chicken.  
“See! His large cock gets all the women! It just ain’t fair!” Sadik whined with mocking tone “so I need a bigger bird!”

“Most people go for a fucking eagle…” Maarten mumbled, slowly rubbing his temples.

“Yeah but turkeys are more versatile,” Sadik argued,  
“And tastier!” Fernando added  
“Hey Ladies… want to taste the turkey?” Sadik winked at the other two and liked his lips; earning him a hearty laughter from Fernando and a face-palm from Maarten.

 

“Oh you have got to be kidding me…” Maarten groaned and resisted the urge to hit his head against the table. One forehead scar was enough.

“Big bird, plenty of taste…” Sadik started counting on his fingers.  
“Ugly, bald..” Fernando added with a grin.  
“Shut the fuck up, I’d beat you and your cock in a fight any day buddy,”

“I like tits!” a tiny voice piped up and all three men stopped and stared at the little girl by their feet who had seemingly popped up from nowhere.

“What?” Maarten spluttered.

“Tits!” she repeated and giggled. “We learnt about them in nursery. There are blue tits and marsh tits and…” she trailed off and took a bite of her sprinkle covered sandwich, her father sinking far into his chair with relief.

Sadik and Fernando were close to bursting out in laughter; but a stern glare from Maarten killed it before it could escape.

“Come on little bunny,” Maarten patted his lap and smiled at her “We don’t eat our lunch off the floor,”  
With a sniffle and a giggle, Dominiek was handing her father the plate and climbing into his lap before resuming her lunch with glee.

“Are you feeding your child sprinkles on bread?” Sadik stared at the colourful display.  
“Hagelslag,” Maarten corrected “And it’s just once in a while; as a treat, right Niekje?”

The little girl nodded eagerly.  
“I cleaned my room today!” she announced with great pride.  
“Very good of you,” Fernando grinned and reached across to ruffle her hair – completely disregarding the fact that Maarten looked ready to murder him on the spot.

“So can you do the tattoo?” Sadik was quick to try and diffuse the rather tense situation.  
“Huh? Uh, yes. Of course. If it’s what you want…” Maarten cast a glance at the drawing the Turk had brought with him. “I can tattoo it as it is or make some freehand alterations…”

Scratching his scruffy beard, Sadik considered the offer.  
“Sure man, I’ll trust this idiot here’s word that you’re a pro,”

“I’ll make sure you’re not going to regret the marksmanship, but I make no promise for not regretting the chosen image,”  
“Don’t you worry about that,” Sadik laughed.


	3. Clean Sketch

Maarten took the challenge of creating the tattoo with the same bored expression as always. The outline of the tattoo was complicated; little feathers needed details if it was to look like the vision Sadik had told him – but that didn’t mean he’d let on that it was tricky.

And while Maarten was deep in concentration on getting the tattoo right, his daughter was continuing her own masterpieces all over Fernando; who for the occasion ha taken of his shirt and was letting her colour all over him.

The Turk was a lot easier to tattoo than most other of his patrons; he hardly winched or made any noise of discomfort – even if his chosen spot for the tattoo was on one of the more tender parts of a persons abdomen.

“Not many people let a child colour them with permanent markers…” Sadik smirked and looked over at Fernando; who’s stomach was filled with scribbles, flowers and random letters in all the rainbow’s colours.  
“She draws better than me so I really can’t complain,” he laughed in return, earning him a pout from Dominiek who did not appreciate that her canvas was moving.

“Sit still,” she commanded and Sadik had to stifle his own laughter at the sight of his friends being bossed around by a tiny blonde girl.

“Goes for you too,” Maarten grumbled at the Turk.  
“I see where she gets it from…” Fernando sighed, taking great pleasure in the fact that his friend was trying very hard not to die from laughter in the tattoo chair.

“Do the two of you need a break?” Maarten stopped his work and looked at the two grown men who where clearly both about to howl with laughter.

“No, no,” Sadik grinned before bursting out in a loud laughter – followed shortly by Fernando.  
Maarten and Domeniek crossed their arms and stared the the two until they’d calmed down.

“Men,” Dominiek sighed and rolled her eyes – which set the two off once more.

“Don’t laugh at her… she’s got the scariest connections in town,” Maarten commented with a slight smirk.

“Contacts? Scary?” Sadik wiped a tear from his eye and looked at the tiny girl who was currently still glaring at her ‘canvas’.

“Is her kindergarten friends going to come bite my ankles? Because damn, I’d love to hear more about them,”  
“Stick around and you will,” Maarten replied cryptically “now, do you want this tattoo finished today or what?”

“Sure, sure,” Sadik sighed and made himself comfortable once more, casting glances between the little girl and her father.  
Now he was curious.

“So how’d you get stuck with the kid anyhow?” he began, curious about why his friend found a tattoo artist and his daughter so fascinating.

“Her mother can’t afford to have her living with her. And we’re not dating,” Maarten answered matter of factly, eyes still glue to the tattoo needle

“Okaaaay…” Sadik was sensing this was probably not a subject to talk about, so he went back to watching Dominiek continue to cover Fernando in drawings.

Five hours later, and one very sore abdomen; Maarten let Sadik have a break to get some water and food. Finally having both hands free he pried his daughter of Fernando; his little angel having fallen asleep on the man’s chest a good hour ago.  
“You could have moved her…” he whispered as he gently held Dominiek in his arms.  
“She was too cute to move,” Fernando chuckled softly in reply.

He watched as Maarten sat down in his chair, softly stroking Dominiek’s hair and whispering words in a language he didn’t understand.

The serene moment was interrupted by the sound of the tattoo parlous’ door opening and slamming shut. Dominiek opened her eyes and immediately began to try to wriggle out of her fathers grasp.  
Giggling she skipped towards to door and the white haired teenager standing there.

“Here early today Halldór?” Maarten greeted, smirking as his daughter was already tugging at the young man’s worn jeans.

“Didn’t have much of a choice… it was coming here or babysitting some dude…” Haldur sneered and attempted to walk with Dominiek clinging to his leg.

“Resident babysitter for the whole town now, are you?” Maarten’s smirk grew as he pried his daughterly of the teens’ leg.  
“Unfortunately so…”

“Babysitting is better than no job!” Fernando added with a laugh, both Halldór and Maarten turning to stare at him.

“Sure… keep telling yourself that man,” Halldór rolled his eyes and took a seat close to Maarten.  
“What are you tattooing today?” he inquired, looking around to see if any new designs had gone up on the wall.

“A turkey,”  
“What?”  
“No joke,”  
“That’s the worst idea I’ve heard in a while,”  
“You have a puffin as a tattoo, you’re in no position to judge kiddo,” Maarten flicked his fingers against Halldór’s forehead, chuckling when the teens cheeks went a few hues of pink.

Fernando just stared, puzzled who the newcomer was.  
“Are you two related?” he blurted out

“Not in the slightest,” Maarten rolled his eyes and motioned for Halldór to hand him the sketchbook he had brought with him.  
While the three ‘artists’ looked at the book, Fernando was becoming bored – but before he had a chance to interrupt anyone, Sadik returned with a large grin and a full stomach of food.  
However, the smile quickly faded at the sight of the white haired teen – and before Maarten or Halldór could comprehend what was going on, Sadik had dragged Fernando outside to ‘discuss a few things’.

“What’s the matter?” Fernando stared up at his friend.  
“You didn’t fucking tell me the guy is affiliated with a biker gang!” Sadik hissed through his teeth “do you know what kind of danger this could get us into?”  
“Maarten’s not in a gang…”  
“No but that creepy white haired kid is!”  
“Yeah and so?”

Sadik groaned, overwhelmed by his friends naivety.  
“Just…just don’t get more involved with him,” he sighed.  
“Oh come on Sadik. The dude’s hot. You know I can’t resist a guy like that!”

“Think with your head for once and not your dick,” Sadik glared “Remember how your last relationship went?”

“Hey it wasn’t so bad with Toni and me…” Fernando coughed and looked at his feet.  
“No, you just moped about it for fucking weeks,”  
“Yeah well it was totally his fault,” he pouted

“And I suppose the Irish dude before that was to blame as well… and that Arthur guy too. Not to mention that dark haired chick who chased you out of her apartment with a frying pan,”

“Hey now that woman was seriously crazy,”  
“I imagine any woman would be if you slept with her and then her ex-boyfriends. What was their names again?” Sadik tapped his chin “Gilbert and Roderick?”

“Dude… you’ve got a better memory than me… do you honestly expect me to remember the name of everyone I sleep with?”  
“No, but I hoped you’d have learnt a lesson by now,”  
“but they haven’t all ended badly!” Fernando frowned “Francis and I are still really good friends!”  
“Only cause that was a one night stand and that man gets more ass than you do,”

“Okay, fine, so I’m not the best boyfriend in the world..”  
“You’re probably the worst. Do I have to remind you of what happened with you and that policeman from America?”  
“Okay. Okay. I get it!” Fernando sighed “But come on, one date won’t hurt me or him!”

“And what if it’s more than one date? Then what? You could be getting yourself into the deep end with no flotation device!”  
“But I know how to swim…”  
“Not the fucking point of the metaphor,” Sadik groaned. “Fine. Let me help your thick skull absorb this information,” he pulled out a small notebook and pen and doodled a few stick figures.  
“This is you. This is Maarten and there people are the really, really dangerous gang members he knows, do you understand?”

Fernando nodded.  
“Good. Now, if you fuck it up with this guy you potentially have these guys coming to beat the shit out of you,” Sadik scribbled all over the Fernando stick figure “you will be tomato sauce in seconds,”  
“Wow…”  
“Do you understand why you need to not get involved,”  
“No,”  
“What!?”  
“Sorry, but your drawings are possibly worse than mine….”

Groaning in agony over Fernando’s stupidity, Sadik grabbed him by the shoulders.  
“I want you to be so fucking sure about asking that guy out that you’d buy him a fucking ring,”  
“I’m not sure he’d want to marry me after the first date…. first screw maybe…”  
“Argh! Just fucking promise me you won’t fuck this up this time,”

“I promise.. I promise,” Fernando grinned confidently “I’ll even wait till the right time to ask him, how does that sound?”

“Still worrying, but better,” Sadik sighed.  
“Good. Now lets get that tattoo of yours done so you can go get ready for that super hot date of yours,”  
“I swear if you lay a hand on her I will—-”  
“Castrate me, yes yes. Told me so this morning. Now get a move on. I want to stare at Maarten for a bit longer today,”

Despite his protests, Sadik sat back down in the tattooing chair, enduing three more hours while he listened to Fernando chatter on with Maarten, Halldór and Dominiek about everything under the sun.  
The Turk was positive he was going to cut out his friends’ tongue one day to save him all the hassle (and save Fernando from all the trouble that tongue of his got him into).


End file.
